Hyundai Steel runs projects on recycling coffee grounds

A Hyundai Steel official introduces its coffee grounds recycling program to officials from district offices in Incheon, July 29. Courtesy of Hyundai Steel

By Nam Hyun-woo

Hyundai Steel is running a number of projects to recycle coffee grounds as part of its efforts to pursue sustainability and make commitments to society, according to the steelmaker, Thursday.

Hyundai Steel, the Korea Productivity Center and Incheon Metropolitan City held a conference on upcycling coffee grounds on July 29, sharing the company's knowhow in recycling the waste with officials at environment-related divisions in eight districts in the city.

Since last year, Hyundai Steel has been running coffee waste recycling programs. Last year, the company signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the Ministry of Environment, the Incheon city government and district offices in the city, and set up infrastructure for collecting coffee grounds. This year, they started collecting coffee waste from cafes in two districts of the city and handed the grounds over to the recycling companies which manufacture upcycled products.

Hyundai Steel said it expects 360 tons of coffee grounds will be recycled in this year's project, saving 210 million won of waste management costs and producing 300,000 upcycled products.

After the conference, district officials reviewed whether they will join the recycling program next year. Hyundai Steel said the current plan of the project is to collect more than 50 tons of coffee grounds from 600 cafes in the city next year, and this will be expanded with each district's participation.

Hyundai Steel said it is running the program as the environmental costs are increasing for managing coffee grounds.

According to statistics, Koreans consumed an average of 512 cups of coffee a year each. Given 99.8 percent of coffee grounds are discarded after making a cup of black coffee, it is assumed that the country is generating 150,000 tons of coffee grounds every year, which are either put in landfills or incinerated.

“The project became possible as all participating parties showed their commitment in recycling coffee grounds,” a Hyundai Steel official said. “We hope more districts in Incheon will participate in this project, allowing us to stabilize the system of collecting and recycling coffee grounds.”